Cheater Sesame Chicken

I am so excited to share today’s recipe with you all! Cheater Sesame Chicken is everything you love about takeout Chinese sesame chicken but is made in your own kitchen. It takes mere minutes without any deep frying. I call that a win!

I know I’ve mentioned my love of Chinese food before here on Foodie with Family. I’ve also mentioned how sad I was when my favourite Chinese restaurant closed its doors for good to allow the owner to retire. Because I live very rurally, there aren’t many Chinese food options nearby, and those within driving distance just don’t ding my chimes. I’m a little choosy. What that means is that I’ve had to figure out how to scratch that itch for American-Chinese classics like easy spicy broccoli beef and sesame chicken.

I’m happy to say that my desperation for Chinese chicken takeout had some excellent results. It was so fast and simple to make, delivered so much wow, and made all my guys so happy. We liked it so much that we made and ate it four times in two weeks even after nailing the recipe on the first go ’round. It automatically made it into everyone’s favourites list here. I am sure you all will love it, too!

The simplicity of Cheater Sesame Chicken is in the every day ingredients; ground chicken, chicken broth, brown sugar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, cornstarch, sesame seeds, and green onions. There are very few proper grocery stores in America where you’d be at a loss for any of these ingredients. Combine easy-to-find ingredients with about 10 minutes of hands-on time, and a recipe that makes this ardent Chinese food lover happy, and you have a recipe for deliciousness; no takeout containers needed!

Cook’s Notes

Ground chicken is pretty easy to find in most grocery stores, but if you have trouble finding it you have two options. You can either grind your own from boneless, skinless chicken thighs, or substitute a lean ground turkey. The butcher’s counter at your local grocery store might even be willing to grind it for you if you ask them!

If you haven’t cooked with ground chicken before, you might be surprised at how differently it cooks. Don’t “brown” the meat, but rather just watch for it to become opaque and no longer pink. That will indicate it’s done. Don’t worry if there are a couple light pink bits showing here or there, though, as you’ll be finishing the cooking process in the simmering sauce as it thickens.

Because we use such a large quantity of soy sauce in the recipe, it is imperative that we use a low-sodium soy sauce for our Cheater Sesame Chicken, otherwise it will render our finished product too salty!

Likewise, it’s best to use a low-sodium chicken broth or stock for our sauce. It’s just easier to start with low-sodium ingredients and adjust the saltiness upward if our tastes prefer that than it is to take sodium out at the end.

Toasted sesame seeds are easy to find in Asian foods sections of grocery stores, but if you can’t locate them, you can quickly toast your own. Simply put your sesame seeds in a dry frying pan or saucepan over a medium heat. Shake the pan back and forth until the seeds are fragrant. Immediately transfer them to a small bowl or plate to cool, as leaving them in the pan will almost certainly scorch them.

Reserve a few sesame seeds and green onion slices aside when you stir the bulk of them into the Cheater Sesame Chicken. That will give you a little to garnish your Chinese chicken before serving.

We have happily eaten Cheater Sesame Chicken over rice, on lettuce leaves as wraps, and on spinach salads for lunch. How will you eat it?

Love this Cheater Sesame Chicken? Try these other shortcut or Asian dishes!

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Cheater Sesame Chicken

Cheater Sesame Chicken is everything you love about takeout Chinese sesame chicken but is made in your own kitchen with no deep frying. Bonus: It's better for you and faster than Chinese takeout!

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Asian

Prep Time5minutes

Cook Time15minutes

Total Time20minutes

Servings6

Calories480kcal

Ingredients

1tablespoonsunflower or refined coconut oil

2poundsground chicken

1teaspoonkosher salt

6clovesgarlicminced

2tablespoonsgrated gingeror ginger paste

1-2tablespoons chili garlic sauce

3/4cupbrown sugar

1/2cuplow sodium soy sauce

1/4cuptoasted sesame oil

1 1/4cupslow sodium chicken broth or stockplus 1/4 cup, separated

2tablespoonscornstarch

2tablespoonstoasted sesame seeds

8 green onionsthinly sliced

Instructions

Drizzle the sunflower or coconut oil into a stainless steel everyday pan or cast iron skillet with high sides over medium heat. Add the ground chicken and cook, breaking up with a bamboo or wooden spoon until opaque and no longer pink. Stir in the minced garlic and ginger, raise the heat to medium high, and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the chili garlic paste and brown sugar and cook for 30 seconds. Whisk together the soy sauce, sesame oil, and 1 1/4 cups chicken stock and pour over the chicken. Bring to a simmer.

Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup of chicken stock and the cornstarch until smooth. Pour into the simmering chicken and sauce, stirring vigorously until combined. Return to a simmer, drop the heat to medium low, and let bubble and thicken for about 3 minutes, adding chicken stock, 1 tablespoon at a time if it becomes too thick.

Remove from the heat and stir in the sesame seeds and green onions. Serve hot on rice, warm on lettuce leaves, or cold on salads.

I believe the only appropriate response to this is "Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" We love this dish at our favorite Chinese restaurant, but it lacks a bit of healthfulness, shall we say? My one serious question, does this make enough sauce to go with rice or is it a little on the drier side? We adore your Cashew Chicken dish over rice, but I double the sauce part of the recipe. Thanks for tackling this.

We had this last night for dinner and it was a hit! Since it's just the two of us I cut the recipe in half and it worked like a charm! I only used one teaspoon of the chili garlic sauce to make the dish a little milder but served it on the side for my heat loving husband. This recipe was perfect for my gluten free diet and yummy enough for my husband to enjoy too! I served it with steamed broccoli like our favorite Chinese restaurant and received two thumbs up! Plenty of sauce too! Thanks so much for a delicious, versatile recipe!

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Copyright 2008-2018 Rebecca Lindamood. Foodie with Family is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.